PERMANENT COUNCIL OEA/Ser.E CP/doc.5610/20 18 May 2020 Original: Spanish/English TWENTY-EIGHTH REPORT OF THE SECRETARY GENERAL TO THE PERMANENT COUNCIL ON THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES MISSION TO SUPPORT THE PEACE PROCESS IN COLOMBIA (MAPP/OAS) Twenty-Eighth Report of the Organization of American States Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia (MAPP/OAS): Link CP42379E04 - 2 - TWENTY-EIGHTH REPORT OF THE SECRETARY GENERAL TO THE PERMANENT COUNCIL ON THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES MISSION TO SUPPORT THE PEACE PROCESS IN COLOMBIA (MAPP/OAS) The following report is submitted pursuant to resolution CP/RES. 859 (1597/04), in which the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States requests the Secretary General to report periodically on the work of the Organization's Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia,1 hereinafter "MAPP/OAS" or "the Mission." This report cover the period between July 1 and December 31, 2019, and presents the findings of 1,251 field missions conducted in 594 communities pertaining to 191 municipalities in 20 departments of Colombia. Those communities included municipal capitals, townships, villages, indigenous reserves [resguardos], and community councils. In the period covered, the Mission logged a total of 295,933 kilometers by land, and 5,961 kilometers by river. The support of the international community is vital for the MAPP/OAS to be able to carry out the activities envisaged in its mandate. The GS/OAS therefore wishes to thank the donors and friends of the MAPP/OAS, in particular the Basket Fund countries (Germany, Canada, Spain, United States, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Sweden) whose political and financial support makes it possible for the mission to carry out its functions. The GS/OAS also wishes to thank South Korea, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey for their contributions and Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden for supporting the Mission with secondments.2 1. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS In 2019, the MAPP/OAS celebrated the Mission's 15th anniversary in Colombia, recalling the achievements, challenges, and learning processes that have enabled it to become a strategic partner in Colombia's peace-building process. The Organization values those years and is grateful for the trust that Colombians have placed in the mission and we reaffirm our commitment to the Colombian State and its people, as they strive for peace. For the Organization, the MAPP/OAS represents a model of cooperation with States and societies that can be replicated in other countries to address the various challenges facing our Hemisphere today. It is an innovative, reliable, flexible, and useful tool guided by the principles of impartiality, independence, respect, autonomy, solidarity, and plurality. In August, in connection with the Inter-American Week for Indigenous Peoples, the OAS once again called upon States to guarantee full and effective protection of the rights of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Today, our region has an important tool3 for consolidating fundamental standards in our inter-American system: the product of a historic and prolonged struggle by those peoples to achieve the effective exercise of their rights, which must be honored and guaranteed 1. The mandate of the MAPP/OAS derives from the agreement entered into by the Government of the Republic of Colombia and the General Secretariat of the OAS on January 23, 2004, and resolution CP/RES. 859 (1397/04) adopted by the Permanent Council on February 6, 2004. That mandate has been broadened and renewed seven times, most recently until December 31, 2021. 2. “Secondment” is a system whereby a country assigns one of its nationals to perform professional functions for a specific period of time. 3. AG/RES. 2888 (XLVI-O/16). American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted within the framework of the forty-sixth regular session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS). - 3 - throughout the Hemisphere. The Mission, too, commemorated that Declaration, pursuant to the call issued by the OAS General Assembly at its forty-ninth regular session. Three years after the signing of the Final Agreement to End the Armed Conflict and Build a Stable and Lasting Peace,4 the GS/OAS acknowledges the commitment shown by all those involved in its implementation. Achieving peace requires enormous efforts on the part of the State and the unwavering commitment of those who lay down their arms; it requires bringing relief to the population that bore the brunt of the conflict, broad social support, and the resolute involvement of territorial entities. Nevertheless, on August 29, 2019, a group of former commanders and middle-ranking officers in the former FARC-EP guerrillas announced that they had again taken up arms and were abandoning the peace process. In the territories that announcement caused fear of possible new patterns of violent confrontation and was unanimously rejected by public opinion. It did not, however, substantially alter the terms of the Final Agreement. The GS/OAS once again highlights the importance of the various components of the Final Agreement, such as integral rural development, guarantees for security and for combating criminal organizations, solving the illicit drugs problem, and effective protection of victims' rights to truth, justice, reparation, and non-repetition, as well as others. In the same vein, the GS/OAS urges ongoing support for their effective implementation as a prerequisite for paving the way toward complete peace among all players involved, regarding all the issues at stake, and in all the territories. The GS/OAS commends the Colombian State's efforts to mitigate violence in the territories and to curb the presence and activities of illegal armed groups, and the harm they continue to wreak on communities and local leaders. As in its previous reports, the GS/OAS acknowledges the multiple strategies, policies, plans, and national and territorial bodies and mechanisms5 forged to confront these developments with efforts to strengthen a constitutional State governed by the rule of law and coordinate State interventions. Nevertheless, communities and leaders (be they community, indigenous, or Afro-descendant leaders or land claimants, or victims of the armed conflict), journalists, human rights defenders, individuals who champion peace policies such as voluntary crop substitution, and former members of the FARC-EP continue to be severely impacted by the presence and activities of illegal armed groups. Forced displacement, confinement, homicides, threats, the planting of anti-personnel mines (APMs), improvised explosive devices (IEDs), unexploded ordnance (UXO), the conscription and recruitment of children, and so on, all continue. Accordingly, the GS/OAS urges greater clarification and information of the roles and functions of each institution, mechanism, and body, with effective coordination among them and rigorous planning of their activities so that they have a positive and effective impact in the territories. Also needed is more robust implementation of individual and collective measures to protect the civilian population from the harm wrought by the presence and activities of illegal armed groups. Differentiated and territorial approaches are needed, tailored to protecting groups entitled to special protection under 4. Signed on November 24, 2016 by the Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP). 5. These include, inter alia, the National Commission on Security Guarantees (CNGS), the Cross-sector Committee for Rapid Response to Early Warnings (CIPRAT); the Strategic Zones for Comprehensive Intervention (ZEII), or Zonas Futuro [Future Zones]; defense and security policy, coexistence and security policy, and the Bicentenary Plan. - 4 - the Constitution, particularly children and adolescents, women, and indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. In the second half of 2019, the first elections of local authorities were held since the signing of the Final Agreement. Despite the difficult circumstances,6 citizens' commitment was reflected in increased participation in the elections compared to those held in 2015,7 as well as in the involvement of a new generation of young people in the elections, the adoption by the electoral authorities of affirmative actions designed to narrow the existing gender gaps with respect to political participation,8and the participation in the elections of the Fuerza Alternativa Revolucionaria del Común [Common Alternative Revolutionary Force] (FARC) political party. The GS/OAS congratulates the local authorities who took office on January 1, 2020 and trusts that new local authorities will continue to boost democracy, human rights, peace, security, and integral development in all the territories. At this crucial juncture in the history of Colombia, the part played by local governments, mayor's offices, departmental assemblies, and municipal councils is vital for the success of the peace process and the actual attainment of peace. The GS/OAS therefore urges implementation in their development plans of the commitments and opportunities provided in the Final Agreement for a real and effective transformation of the territories by embracing the measures contained in the Rural Development Plans (PDETs) in the 170 prioritized municipalities. A major development for victims' rights was the declaration by the Constitutional Court in early December that the June 2021 expiry date for the Victims